Backpacking Cookware

My backpacking cookware collection began with a small pot and a tuna fish can. I cooked the main meal in the small pot and sides of vegetables and hot apple sauce in the tuna fish can.

I stopped cooking in tuna fish cans because they have a plastic epoxy
lining which contains BPA, a hazardous chemical which may have leached
into my food after being liberated by the heat of the stove. If you ever
see me hiking or writing in circles, that is probably the reason.

Good-bye tuna can, hello fry pan lid.

Evernew makes a collection of backpacking cookware that includes
non-stick pots with fry pan lids.

I don’t fry anything
in the lid. I use it as a second pot to rehydrate and heat food over
three tea light candles.

I own the Evernew ECA-417 and ECA-418 Backpacking Cookware sets which I highly recommend. Here’s why I like them so much:

Volume:

Evernew model ECA-417 has a 900 ml titanium non-stick pot with a 500 ml fry pan lid for a total cooking volume of 1400 ml. That’s almost four cups capacity in the pot and a little over two cups in the lid.

Pot Size: 5.4 x 2.5 inches

Pan Size: 5.4 x 1.5 inches

Evernew model ECA-418 has a 1300 ml titanium non-stick pot with a 650 ml fry pan lid for a total cooking volume of 1950 ml. That’s about five and a half cups capacity in the pot and almost three cups in the lid.

Pot Size: 6 x 3 inches

Pan Size: 6 x 1.6 inches

The ECA-417 is ideal for solo backpacking and the the ECA-418 is ideal for two people who like to cook one meal in the same pot to share while also cooking a side in the lid. However, two people can still share the smaller ECA- 417 by dividing their meal into two portions and cooking one in the pot and one in the lid. Yes, you can cook an entire meal in the lid!

Weight:

Titanium is light-weight but strong. There is only an ounce of difference between the two sets.

ECA-417 weighs 6.2 ounces

ECA-418 weighs 7.2 ounces

Handles:

The
pots and fry pan lids have insulated wire handles that fold back in
opposite directions against the outside of the pot when packed. Cooking
with the built-in handles is easier than using a separate pot gripper
and there is one less tool to carry.

I compared the Evernew handle design with the handle design of a similar pot/fry pan set, the Snow Peak Titanium Multi Compact Cook Set.

The Evernew handle feels more secure in my hand than the Snow Peak. The
attachment points of the handles to the pots are wider with the Evernew
pots than the Snow Peak pots, so the two handle parts come together
perfectly and are comfortable to grasp.

The Snow Peak handle parts are joined closer together to the
pot and slide inside each other rather than meet firmly in the middle. They can squirm around when you grasp them.

Also, the Snow Peak wire handles have no insulation which makes them even more
wobbly and hotter to handle.

The Snow Peak handles for the fry pan lids fold up and over the pan when
packed rather than against the sides, but when extended in the cooking
position also rattle a bit in your hand rather than providing a snug
connection to the pan.

Other Features I like about the Evernew ECA-417 & ECA-418 Backpacking Cookware Sets.

The pots are wider than they are tall. A wide pot keeps more of the
dehydrated food in contact with water through the whole heating and
rehydration process so water gets absorbed evenly by the food without
excess water left in the bottom of the pot.

Stirring is easier with a short wide pot.

The fry pan lids create extra space above the pots when packed which
allows me to pack a wider windscreen inside the pots plus my stove
components and one or two spoons.

The silicon-ceramic, non-stick coating is a good alternative to a
Teflon® coating since it is not made with PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid),
a chemical suspected of being hazardous to health.

The ECA-417 nests snugly inside the ECA-418 if I want to carry two pots
and two fry pan lids for group cooking. You could also carry the larger
pot and two fry pan lids, the smaller fry pan nesting inside the larger
one.

I achieve great results cooking with Evernew Backpacking Cookware.

The fry pan lids add versatility
to my cooking options with hardly any weight increase compared to a
single pot with a regular lid. However, if you prefer a pot with a regular lid, or a larger pot, Evernew makes those, too.

Since
I cook in the pot and fry pan lid at the same time and want to keep
them both covered while cooking, I made pot lids out of aluminum pie
pans. I also cut out two heat shields from pie pans to place under the
stoves.

Evernew pots flair out at the top which forms an internal ledge to
support a homemade lid. To make your own light-weight pot lid, simply
trace the outline of the top of the pot with a Sharpie on an aluminum
pie pan or roasting pan and then cut it out just inside the line. Cut
away small pieces of the pie pan as you go along. Go around a few times
with your scissors, checking each time until you get a good fit. For the
larger pot lid, I folded a one-inch wide strip of foil tape around the
edge to make a better seal. I made the lid for the fry pan slightly
smaller so the lid would slide down over the food to trap more heat. I
didn’t bother with foil tape around the edge of the fry pan lid.

I
attached a one-inch by four-inch strip of aluminum tape folded against
itself in the middle to form the handle. To make this easier, fold the 1
X 4 foil tape in half, foil side out with the backing still attached,
and press on the fold. Next, fold the two sides up so that they line up
with the first fold and press on the folds. Your foil tape will form the
letter M. Remove the tape backing three-quarters of the way and stick
the two middle parts of the M to each other. Stick the exposed tape from
one end to the lid and then peel and stick the other end. You can
reinforce the fold area with additonal foil tape since it will wear out
from repeated foldings.

Tip: Don’t use any non-food grade
aluminum or tin such as roof flashing to make your lids since it would
probably be galvanized. You don’t want acid rain in your chili!

Keep it Simple

I
eat directly out of the pot and fry pan lid. The photos of plated meals
on the website are for show and to put one of Grandpa’s old aluminum
plates to good use. He had a large backpacking cookware set and our boat
rode low in the water when we hauled all that gear across the lake to
the loggers’ cabin in Quebec.

The only backpacking utensil I use
is a short stainless steel spoon from the kitchen drawer. Plastic
spoons break easily and aluminum or titanium spoons tend to be made in
shapes that feel awkward in my mouth. I scratch up the non-stick
coatings of my pots a bit with my spoon, but the pots still work fine.

For
measuring water, I carry one or two 20-ounce beverage bottles as part
of my hydration system. I draw lines on the bottles with a Sharpie at
different levels to mark ¼ cup, ½ cup, 1 cup, etc. so that it is easy to
add the right amount of water to a meal. If you carry a coffee mug, you
could use that for measuring instead.

How to make simple, light-weight pot supports and wind screens for cooking with pots and fry pan lids.

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